When Apple sued HTC, and targeted Android specifically (news which came out of the blue), many people, including myself, were convinced this was Apple letting the world know they were afraid of Android's rising popularity. This notion was laughed away by many an Apple fan, but it turns out that this is most likely far closer to reality than many dare to admit: in the first quarter of 2010, Android conquered the number two market share spot from the iPhone in the US - and by a wide margin too. Update: Added a graph which better shows the trend.

Thom, Android hasn't overtaken the iPhone, though. Since we're looking at one quarter's sales, and it's a quarter in which some exciting Android handsets have become available, and nothing exciting is happening in the iPhone world, Android has has big sales growth this quarter and Apple hasn't. But that doesn't mean that suddenly there are more Android handsets out there than iPhones. Far from it.

That's not to say that the trend isn't for continued growth for Android. And as it becomes more widespread among handset makers and carriers, it will be a robust competitor for Apple, particularly since Apple tends to restrict availability to one carrier. But those days will soon be over, I believe. Within a few years, iPhone will be available for most if not all carriers.

At that point, the competition will be based on several factors: price, features, handset design, app availability, and (probably last on people's radar) platform freedom.